Omar Abdel-Rahman

Omar "the Blind Sheikh" Abdel-Rahman (3 May 1938-) was a sheikh from Egypt who was the leader of the violent al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya Islamist organization responsible for the 1997 Luxor Massacre. He also ordered the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. On 24 June 1993 he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996.

Biography
Omar Abdel-Rahman was born on 3 May 1938 in Al-Gammaliyyah, Dakhalia Governorate, Egypt. Due to diabetes, he lost his eyesight and studied a Braille version of the Islamic holy book, the Quran. He graduated from Al-Azhar University in Quranic studies and he denounced the secularism of the government of President Gamal Abdel Nasser along with many other Islamist critics. He became involved in the al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya extremist group and was also associated with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, leading al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya in several terrorist attacks. Abdel-Rahman was arrested for three years for ordering the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, leading to the murder of Sadat in 1981.

Abdel-Rahman's reputation led to him joining al-Qaeda, and he took over the international jihadist arm of the organization under Osama bin Laden. Abdel-Rahman headed to the United States in 1990 and lived in New York City, leading al-Qaeda's financial operations there. In 1991 he became a naturalized United States citizen, but he declared that it was lawful to rob banks and kill Jews in the United States in a fatwa issued to all American Muslims and spoke out against America (even though they backed the Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War). In 1993 he ordered the bombing of the World Trade Center, which caused large structural damage to the building. He was also responsible for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane, and in 1993 alone, 1,100 Egyptians were killed in terror attacks. On 24 June 1993 he was arrested by American police and in 1996 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his terrorist activities.

He was imprisoned at Fort Butner Correctional Institute in North Carolina in a controversial move, as he was the voice of jihadism in the world. In 2012, Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi seized power in a coup against Hosni Mubarak's dictatorship and he attempted to communicate with the American Department of Defense in hopes of freeing Abdel-Rahman. However, he was ousted from power in 2013 before he could do anything to free Abdel-Rahman. Also in 2012, Islamist militias captured an oil refinery in In Amenas in Algeria and demanded that Abdel-Rahman be released and traded for their hostages. The Americans refused to negotiate with terrorists, and Abdel-Rahman remained in prison.